Despite Washington's official explanations about the shortage of weapons, the US decision to reduce arms supplies to Ukraine may have political motives. In particular, the United States may not want to "anger Putin" and seek to avoid escalation, hoping to preserve space for diplomacy, which does not work with dictatorial regimes. Political scientist Oleg Lisny told a correspondent of UNN about this.
The Ukrainian side, in the person of the president, appealed to the president of the United States to increase the range of weapons sold to us. And even a journalist asked Trump, and he said yes, it could be. And this is a very important point, because Ukraine places a lot of hope on the United States selling us air defense systems
According to the expert, statements that the USA is experiencing a shortage of weapons are "not entirely true, because the United States has much more weapons than one could imagine." He said that it is currently unknown which types of weapons are subject to reduction in supplies, but information about Patriot systems or missiles for them is circulating in the press.
"If this information is true, the logic of the American side is not entirely clear here. There can be two scenarios here. Either this is really preparation for the fact that there may be some aggravations in the Middle East in Israel. And the second is to "not anger" Putin, to show that the United States is not helping, that they are for everything to be resolved exclusively through diplomatic means. And this is not a very good situation for us," he added.
Lisny emphasized that "Putin doesn't care" whether the US supplies weapons. Of course, they would prefer that this not happen, but according to the expert, this is not the moment that can strongly influence the president of the Russian Federation and incline him to settle the conflict through diplomatic means. In addition, as Lisny notes, Putin may interpret this US signal as "an opportunity to pressure Ukraine."
This looks like a continuation of infantile policy towards the Russian Federation, in my opinion, no more, no less. It doesn't make it any easier for us to understand whether they are punishing us or flirting with the Russian Federation, because they are killing us here. And if air defense systems are indeed not being transferred to us, I repeat, this is unproven information, if so, it is a short-sighted step. Because Putin, not getting results on the battlefield, will terrorize civilians to break this rear and break the support of the common Ukrainian and force him to beg for an end to the war on any terms
Lisny added that he does not believe that such a scenario will succeed, but the political scientist is sure that Putin will definitely try it. He stressed that the United States is currently "moving from power diplomacy to word diplomacy."
"And this does not work with Putin, word diplomacy does not work with any dictator," Lisny emphasized.
The expert suggested that Ukraine might try to resolve the air defense issue with the help of European allies, but only partially.
I make an assumption - the sky can be closed by means that are produced in Europe. And a step towards this is the statement of the German minister about allocating funds for air defense to the Ukrainian side. As for Patriots - everything depends on the USA. Currently, the number (Patriot – ed.) that we can even hypothetically purchase from European allies is not enough to fully close the sky, which Zelensky has been talking about since the second day of the war. "Help close the sky over Ukraine." We see that for now either we are big or our friends are indecisive
Recall
The White House confirmed that the United States is ceasing to supply certain types of weapons to Ukraine due to the low level of its own military reserves. This decision, as explained at the White House, is linked to the US Department of Defense's review of military aid to other countries.